3 Elements You Must Have To Get Physically Healthy

If you want to get truly healthy, have great energy and feel fully alive in every way, there are three elements you absolutely must have.

Skimp on any one of them, and you have seriously shortchanged yourself. Make use of all three, and you will be surprised at the results.

Those three necessary elements are wellness, medicine and prayer. Wellness: all you can do on your own, such as following a healthy lifestyle and using supplements if necessary. Medicine: the professionals that help you with your health, and the medical treatments they recommend. Prayer: connecting with Great Physician regularly.

Sadly, I’ve seen people who rely primarily on only one or even two of these elements. And I’ve seen how doing so can drastically limit their long-term health. You don’t want to be one of those so limited. Some who are missing out include:

• The 30-something young woman, 200 pounds overweight, who needs an emergency C-section at 26 weeks of pregnancy to save her life and the life of her baby and is surprised and frustrated when medical care can’t prevent all the associated complications.
• The “wellness doctor” who disparages the chemotherapy recommended for his mother when she gets breast cancer and refuses to acknowledge the problem when her cancer quickly returns and spreads.
• The people standing in a prayer line for healing who don’t follow medical recommendations for treatment of their conditions or change their unhealthy lifestyle practices.
• Those who would like to blame God for their illness and lack of healing when their disease is clearly the result of their own behaviors.

Let me be clear. These things are true:

• God wants you well. He is the Healer, the Great Physician. He’s sad when you hurt or are ill. Your wellness glorifies Him and benefits His kingdom.
• Your lifestyle makes a difference. Your healthy diet, supplements when necessary, staying away from toxins and good physical exercise will definitely make you healthier.
• Medical care is not a cure-all. Treatments frequently have side effects. Science does not have all the answers. Doctors are human and at times make mistakes.
• Not all illness is your fault. And not all illness can be prevented. Some of what happens to us is simply a result of living in our broken world.

But those truths do not lessen the need for you to maximize use of all three of these elements in order to get healthy. Wellness, medicine and prayer are three legs of a stool. Lose any one of the three, and you’ll fall over. 

Refuse to live the healthiest lifestyle you can, and you will almost certainly suffer from one or more chronic illnesses.

Refuse thoughtfully chosen and scientifically-based medical care, and you are limiting the avenues through which you may experience healing.

Refuse to earnestly, persistently seek God in prayer, and you’re missing out on the only real Source of healing—the Great Physician.

I’m passionate about this because I see people suffer needlessly. They experience illness as a result of a poor lifestyle that may be difficult, but not impossible, to change. Or they give their personal power over to a doctor who may be good but can never be all-knowing. Or they refuse treatment that might truly help or even cure their illness. Or they blame God for causing or refusing to heal an illness they had a large part in causing. Or they miss out on the comfort, courage, strength and healing God can provide regardless of whether or not they had a role in causing their own illness.

You don’t have to suffer in those ways.

What You Can Do

So how can you make full use of this three-legged stool necessary for good health?

These things are important:

1. Choose to take charge of your health. No human being or organization can or will care more about your health than you do. Make the decision to own responsibility for your health.

2. Realize you don’t know it all. Make full use of the professionals available to you. Read books, newsletters and reputable online sources related to health. Ask questions.

3, Be willing to make changes, even tough changes. Eating healthier food, being more active physically, learning to maintain a healthy attitude, getting rid of addictions—all that will make a difference.

4. Remember to pray. Pray for your own health. Pray for the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do your part. Pray for God’s direct intervention in your health. Ask others to pray for you.

If you want to get healthy, you can’t focus on only one area of your life. You need to see yourself as in charge and also be willing to make full use of all the resources available. Take responsibility, but don’t do it alone. {eoa}

Dr. Carol Peters-Tanksley is both a board-certified OB-GYN physician and an ordained doctor of ministry. As an author and speaker, she loves helping people discover the Fully Alive kind of life Jesus came to bring us. Visit her website at drcarolministries.com.

For the original article, visit drcarolministries.com.